Abstract We report on the distribution of contemporary foraminifera in salt marshes Mission Bay and Carpinteria Slough, Southern California. Combining these data with existing datasets from Seal Beach Tijuana, we explore potential for a regional training set to underpin quantitative reconstructions paleoenvironmental change preserved salt-marsh sediments. demonstrate that species’ distributions...

Although grasshoppers are common salt marsh herbivores, we know little about geographic variation in their species composition. We documented latitudinal variation in species composition of the tettigoniid grasshopper fauna of Atlantic Coast salt marshes. Tettigoniids (N=740 adults) were collected from the Spartina alterniflora zone of 31 salt marsh sites across a latitudinal range of 13.19° (F...

Ecosystem boundary retreat due to human-induced pressure is a generally observed phenomenon. However, studies that document thresholds beyond which internal resistance mechanisms are overwhelmed are uncommon. Following the Deepwater Horizon (DWH) oil spill, field studies from a few sites suggested that oiling of salt marshes could lead to a biogeomorphic feedback where plant death resulted in i...

Because most plant production is subject to senescence and is eventually consumed by detritivores, the factors that drive detritivore diet choice are pivotal to the flow of energy and materials through food webs. Here, we investigated the common salt marsh amphipod Gammarus palustris, which is a habitat specialist that feeds specifically on the dead leaves of its living host plant, salt marsh c...

Predator depletion on Cape Cod (USA) has released the herbivorous crab Sesarmareticulatum from predator control leading to the loss of cordgrass from salt marsh creek banks. After more than three decades of die-off, cordgrass is recovering at heavily damaged sites coincident with the invasion of green crabs (Carcinusmaenas) into intertidal Sesarma burrows. We hypothesized that Carcinus is depen...

In 1980 the State of Connecticut began a tidal marsh restoration program targeting systems degraded by tidal restrictions and impoundments. Such marshes become dominated by common reed grass ( Phragmites australis ) and cattail ( Typha angustifolia and T. latifolia ), with little ecological connection to Long Island Sound. The management and scientific hypothesis was that returning tidal action...

We explored the use of an opportunistic green alga, Enteromorpha intestinalis (L. Link), as an indicator of N enrichment in a southern California salt marsh. In conjunction with N additions to cordgrass (Spartina foliosa, Trin) in April, June and August 1995, mesh bags containing N-starved algal tissue were placed within cordgrass patches, at their edges along islands, and in adjacent channels....

We present an expanded training set of salt-marsh foraminifera for reconstructing Holocene relative sea-level change from 12 sites in New Jersey that represent varied physiographic environments. Seven groups of foraminifera are recognized, including four highor transitional-marsh assemblages and a low-salinity assemblage. A weighted-averaging transfer function trained on this dataset was applie...

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill affected hundreds of kilometers of coastal wetland shorelines, including salt marshes with persistent heavy oiling that required intensive shoreline "cleanup" treatment. Oiled marsh treatment involves a delicate balance among: removing oil, speeding the degradation of remaining oil, protecting wildlife, fostering habitat recovery, and not causing further ecologic...